


dawn

by breadandsand



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-29 23:38:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20444480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breadandsand/pseuds/breadandsand
Summary: a short little thing about water.





	dawn

Her hands crack through the thin lining of ice, into the deep water--and then up, up, and out until Amell feels a blessed chill snake down her cheeks and the long slope of her neck. She’s splattered water on the ground around her in her rush, gotten the tips of her tunic wet and soggy. The droplets in her hair catch the dawn light; she absently watches the last rivulets slink down her palms.

Amell takes a breath, then, drawn out and jagged, and drags wet fingers through the strands of hair sticking to her jaw-- leaves them there, tucked behind her ear, in favor of letting the autumn wind dry the tip of her nose and the hollows of her cheeks. 

The ground is covered in leaves that murmur quietly as she sits at the riverbank, little pieces that cover the brown, cracked earth beneath it. The occasional breeze stirs them up, up, up, a flurry of red gold green that flutters back to the floor when the current leaves and the air falls into stillness. Amell’s fingers curl around a stick as she scratches into the dirt’s dark surface, little lines and circles for the cracked corners of the map tucked beneath her blankets, and groans in frustration when a ripple tips over the shallow bank and leaves it smooth as before. She watches the water spiral across her fingertips, watches as the droplets freeze in the winter.

(Later, when her hands are warm and the soft, worn tunic has dried in the timid sun, she braids the strands of hair back firmly and brushes the leaves off of her cloak. Her breaths settle into a calm that brings weight back into her bones, into her numb hands and dull eyes, and Amell sighs as the weariness sinks beneath skin.)


End file.
